


The Dragon Boy and the Prince

by AmyriadfthINGs



Category: Druck | SKAM (Germany)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Curses, Dragons, Druck Fandom Gift Exchange, Established Relationship, Fic within a Fic, Friends to Lovers, Future Fic, Kid Fic, M/M, Mild Smut, Sort Of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:14:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21637189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmyriadfthINGs/pseuds/AmyriadfthINGs
Summary: Once upon a time, when Carlos and Abdi adopted a little girl, Matteo and David made up a story about a dragon boy and a prince. This is sort of this story, and also some other stories, too.
Relationships: Carlos Schmidt/Abdi Ates, Matteo Florenzi/David (Druck)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 47





	The Dragon Boy and the Prince

**Author's Note:**

> There is a fic idea behind this fic I´ve had for months, but I don´t know if I´ll ever write it. Dear [eldee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eldee/) , I´m not sure what this has turned into. But I hope it´s a somewhat enjoyable gift.

Abdi closes the book with a flourish and recites from memory in a high-pitched voice (because he´s narrating as a grandma, his little listener´s favorite role for him to take, but hard to do a whole book in) “And for years to come, the kingdom was protected by the dragon boy and his noble prince. And the annual pizza festival of the town was a delicious peaceful event, now that the fight over Sauce Hollandaise and Tsatsiki has been ended forever.” 

Charlie yawns and has trouble keeping her eyes open, but still demands at a surprising volume: “Another one, another one!” 

Abdi squishes his face into pure regret and makes a show of tucking each of Charlie´s four favorite stuffed animals under the covers with her, two on each side.

“Cookie, if we don´t stop now, we´re going to be reading all night, and then your dad is going get mad and--” “No, he´s not!” Charlie interrupts him triumphantly. “He loves you almost as much as he loves me, maybe even the same!” 

Abdi would lie if he said his heart didn´t do a proper gymnastic act in his chest. 

“And I love you, too, both of you. But we´ve read this one so often, doesn´t it ever get boring?” 

“Nooo, don´t you know this is uncle Matteo´s and David´s book? They made it for me! It´ll never be boring.” Charlie sounds as convinced as a 6-year old can be convinced of anything. 

“You´re right. Hey, should we ask them if they´ll write another book? What do you think?” Abdi in fact knows that they are, but anything to distract Charlie from reading more bedtime stories, at least in grandma voice, is fair game. “Jaaaaa, can we ask them right now? Like, right now?” 

“Okay, sweetie. But then you have to sleep. I´m very tired, too, you know. I´ve got to go to bed, as well." Charlie looks doubtful at that piece of information. “Huh? I don´t believe you.” 

"But I guess we can call them real quick. Here, you can do it.” Abdi holds out the phone for Charlie to dial Matteo and David. It takes a few rings, but when David answers the video call, a big smile spreads across his face as he realizes who is calling besides Abdi. 

“Abdi? Oh, hi you two! Charlie, my favorite, how nice of you to call!” He blows several air-kisses into the camera and walks through the apartment to settle down on a couch. “And hi Abdi, so good of you to lend your phone to my favorite niece.” 

They´re all somehow Charlie´s uncles, aunts, parents, god-parents, because, as Carlos pointed out when he and Abdi adopted her: “Brudis for life, guys. That means uncles for life.” 

Charlie giggles. “Daviiiiid, I have a question.” Abdi, who is sitting next to Charlie on her bed for the call wiggles his eyebrows at David. “Okay, Cookie. What´s up? Oh, hold on a second, do you know who´s coming home right now? Your favorite uncle Matteo!” Abdi and Charlie see David look up and wave someone over. 

A few seconds later, after noisily toeing off his shoes and tossing a bag on a table, Matteo indeed appears in the frame as he flops down on the sofa next to David. Nose and cheeks red from the cold, hair sticking up wildly, he kisses David on the cheek and peeks at the phone. “Charlieee,” he greets the 6-year old enthusiastically. He looks tired, though, Abdi thinks, but then he´s been working a lot lately, among other things on his and David´s new children´s book. As far as he knows it´s almost ready to go to print. 

Wild to think that it all started out as a fun project when Charlie´s adoption came through, much of the story conceived while Matteo was high, but refined in a sober state, and lovingly illustrated by David and printed as a gift for free through a connection Alex still had. A copy of that print had somehow made its way to a publisher who was printing something else at the time and… well, 6 years later, after doing "proper work" for a while, David and Matteo had set out to actually write a sequel to their decent, first-time authors´ surprise success. (Abdi guesses Charlie´s constant niggling might have something to do with that decision. It warms his heart.)

"Uncle Matteooo," Charlie has snuggled up close to Abdi and is playing with her hair. "Si, cara mia?" Matteo on his part has snuggled up to David and looks about to fall asleep, not unlike Charlie. 

"Are you and uncle David going to write me another book?" 

Matteo looks up at David, a knowing smile on his lips. David meets his gaze with raised eyebrows and asks in a serious tone: "I don´t know, honey, should we?" His eyes are dancing with glee. 

Matteo looks back at the camera and says: "Well, Charlie, I didn´t know you wanted another book! Well, what do you say, David, should we talk about that? Actually, you know what? I think you need to go to bed, piccola, and Abdi needs to go to bed, and David and I will now... talk... about writing another book, okay?" Matteo leers at his husband and not so subtly wiggles his eyebrows. David just rolls his eyes, but in an exceedingly fond way. Abdi snorts. Charlie looks up at him. "What´s so funny?" 

"Nothing, my darling. We should let uncle Matteo and David go and… talk about your new book, okay?"  
"Okay! Bye, uncle Matteo and uncle David!" 

They end the call with Abdi wishing them a "Nice evening!" and lewdly wiggling his tongue at them, at which David just groans and pokes his head into Matteo´s shoulder. "I want out. Why do we have them for life, Matteo, why?" Matteo quickly says "Good night, Cookie, good night, Abdi" before the screen goes blank rather abruptly. 

Charlie´s bedroom door opens and Abdi looks up, surprised to see Carlos´ appear in the doorframe. He likes how his stomach still does funny things sometimes when he doesn´t expect it. "You´re early! We´re just about to go to bed, I swear." "All good, don´t worry about it, the event was a bust, so I made it home as soon as I could. Guess I´m lucky I can see both of my favorite people still awake." 

Carlos flops down on Charlie´s other side and presses a kiss to her head. She looks up at him, barely keeping her eyes open: "Papi said we could call uncle Matteo and David and ask them for a new book for me, daddy.” 

Carlos smiles at Abdi. "Oh yeah? Are they going to write you another one?" 

"M-hm." Charlie is almost asleep already, but Abdi and Carlos wait a few minutes longer to make sure. When her breathing evens out, one after the other slowly gets up from her bed and kisses her goodnight. They almost wake her up again when Carlos can´t resist poking Abdi in the ribs as they leave her room and Abdi squeaks and jumps in surprise. They freeze mid-moment and hold onto each other´s arms looking slowly back at their little girl´s peaceful face. 

On the night stand that Carlos once built for Charlie lies her book, the one about the dragon and the prince, David´s art making up the cover, closed for the night and to the little girl´s eyes. 

But as the stars glitter outside on a black sky, life shines brightly inside its pages. 

+++ 

Chapter 1: 

There is a cave in a deep forest, and it leads into a mountain, but no one ever goes there, so no one knows about the hidden treasure. People know about the dragon, though.

One day, a prince walks by the dragon´s cave, only he doesn´t look like a prince at all. He looks like a vagabond, and nobody would ever guess he could be royalty. He carries all his belongings in a bag over his shoulder and his pants have holes in them, just like one sleeve of his faded shirt. 

The dragon is asleep in front of his cave. That is, his rear end is still inside the cave, but his big scaly head rests in the shade of the large old trees that line the small clearing. 

The prince thinks, "That is a sad-looking dragon. Why could a dragon be so sad, even though he´s taking a nap and it´s not even raining? Maybe I should talk to him." 

You have to know, that is quite unusual for the prince. He hasn´t talked to anyone on his journey in months and months. He has been all on his own, travelling along small back roads and through the mountains, avoiding villages if he could, living off what nature had to offer. 

But the dragon doesn´t know that. And the dragon doesn´t know he´s a prince. And in this moment, with the prince wondering what to do, the dragon wakes up. 

The prince startles as one large eye slowly blinks open and lazily focuses on him. "I´m David," the prince says and curses. He hasn´t told anyone his real name on his whole journey. "Sorry. You´re not going to tell anyone my name, right?" 

The dragon blinks again, once. "I wouldn´t know why or to whom anyway." 

David notices the dragon´s scales are dusty looking and dull. He doesn´t know many dragons, but he has seen pictures of shiny ones flying across the skies. "I´m Matteo," the dragon adds. "At least I think I am. I don´t know much anymore these days." 

The dragon -- Matteo -- looks exhausted at the effort spent talking to David. And David suddenly notices how tired his own body feels. "Hey, can I maybe sit with you for a little bit? I have been walking a lot." 

"Sure, whatever," Matteo the dragon replies, skeptically eyeing David once more before settling his head down again. 

David looks around and there isn´t really anything to lean against except the cave entrance, so he leans his back against the hard rock. But when he does, he can feel the heat emanating from Matteo´s large dragon body. It has been a while since he has been properly warm, but as tempting as it is, David stays where he is and, trained by months of sleeping in the wild, falls asleep within minutes. 

He doesn´t notice Matteo pushing his large body clumsily over next to David, so he is right next to him should David wish to lean on him during his sleep. His long neck curves protectively around his new friend as he falls back asleep, too. 

+++ 

Carlos has brought pizza, and he and Abdi eat while their daughter peacefully sleeps and dreams of dragons and princes. 

When they retreat to the couch, they argue about what movie to watch, and when they finally watch it, Carlos asks Abdi about his day with Charlie, and then they talk over the movie until one of them pauses it quickly, and when Carlos bursts out in laughter at some point, Abdi shushes him, so he doesn´t accidentally wake Charlie. 

They end up falling asleep on the couch, but Abdi wakes up once during the night with a crick in his neck. He hugs Carlos close and buries his nose in his hair and falls back asleep anyway. 

+++ 

Chapter 2: 

The night is cold and Matteo stays curled around his new acquaintance until the sun goes up. But he only relaxes fully when the traveler called David leans against him and sighs in his sleep. 

Finally, a good use for this stupidly large warm body, Matteo thinks. 

He wonders how long the stranger will stay with him and why he isn´t scared of him like all the other people. 

He would be scared of himself if he were a human. But right now, David looks almost comfortable. Matteo hasn´t ever warmed someone like that before. It´s a very nice feeling, he thinks. Almost like he can suddenly feel the warmth inside him, too. 

+++ 

Meanwhile, Matteo and David have left a trail of clothes on their way to the shower as if they´re newly in love and not together for over a decade. 

They luxuriate in the hot water as they let the shower wash off the week´s stress and slow down to meet each other again at the end of this particular day. Skin is meeting skin, softly caressing, they greet each other with small then more purposeful touches, carrying gratitude and certainty that comes from knowing what love means after all this time, and especially what it´s worth after a hard week. 

They don´t spend in there long, but it´s needed and welcome, and the exhaustion they may have felt before is replaced by something gentler, smoother and peaceful by the end of it. 

They towel off each other´s flushed skin enough that they´re not dripping all over the place. They do it mostly wordlessly and interspersed with little kisses and touches, and when they´re done in the bath they don´t bother putting any clothes back on, simply walk together to the bedroom, holding hands, sinking down together like they have chosen to do for so many times. 

On the cool sheets they make love until the heat of their skin spreads out. Their hands are sure of the other one´s pleasure, their touches firm and soft, demanding and giving, relentless when the other needs it. 

Maybe their love is more generous these days, and more patient, too. But they also very well know their reward and seek to get ever closer to each other, search for every tight space and claim it together, the other´s high lifting up both. 

They keep holding on even when they forget themselves, certain they can never get lost. They taste and go deep and give pleasure and take it, too. It´s a rush and a tumble and soon enough there´s a new sweet sheen of sweat and high keening sounds from one throat or another, and words of affection, and breaths in between and new moans to be coaxed out before it´s done.

Carving out time to cherish what they have is a learned skill that Matteo and David have studied and failed and studied harder only to arrive at where they are. 

When David comes again on top of him, Matteo is still stunned by his beauty. He´s got one hand in David´s hair, thumb caressing over his cheek bone and blissed out face. It´s about more than beauty, he knows as they breathe hard against each other.

Even with life getting more complicated and complex every day, they get to be freer with each other than ever. 

David dips his head down and kisses Matteo languorously. He carefully lays on top of Matteo and places another kiss on his collarbone. 

They fall asleep not long after. 

+++ 

Chapter 5 

One morning, David wakes up with the sun in his face. They fell asleep outside the cave last night after he told Matteo about his family. His old family, the one he left behind, the one he can´t return to.  
He remembers again that he cried and wipes his face at the memory, but his cheeks are dry now. 

The small fire Matteo had kindled with his breath probably made his tears shine even more, he thinks. But the beautiful thing was that Matteo had emerged out of his cave completely for the first time since he met him.

His scaly body had almost completely filled the small clearing. He looked a bit uncomfortable at first, David remembers, looking around, careful not to bump into any trees, arranging his limbs painstakingly and looking tired when he was done. 

David saw his rear scales were even duller than the front part, and some were even chipped or completely gone, leaving ugly, rough patches on his body. 

He wonders if Matteo would allow him to go into his cave some day. He wonders if they already know each other enough that he could ask him. 

He looks around for his friend now, but Matteo is nowhere to be seen. 

+++ 

Kiki calls the next day, like she does most Saturdays. 

As one of several godmothers, she and Charlie have a standing phone date ever since Kiki moved to Norway to be a guest lecturer in Oslo. (Her old psychology professor and mentor recommended her for the post. It took her a while to get used to his teaching style at first, always using these rather simplistic metaphors, like comparing people to islands, but she came around and finds herself relating back to them herself when she talks to students these days.) 

Charlie is telling her proudly about the new book Matteo and David are writing for her, which Kiki of course knows about, as well. 

Carlos grins at Abdi. “Dude, I think we got lucky, like, generally speaking, with everything.” 

“I know we got lucky, bro.” Abdi replies and plants a loud smooch on Carlos´ lips. 

+++ 

Prince David is worried. Where is Matteo? You can hardly miss him, he´s so big! 

And even if he isn´t one of those shiny dragons, he´s still awe-inspiring. He´s also one of the gentlest beings David has ever met, come to think of it. If only he knew why he was always so sad. 

Suddenly he hears and feels a low rumble starting in the earth below. He runs over to the entrance of the cave to hold on to the stone as the ground shakes under his feet. 

What is happening? And why isn´t Matteo here?

+++ 

David wakes up alone in their bed, which is rare. Maybe Matteo just went to the bathroom. 

David sniffs the air. Could it be…? He grabs some of Matteo´s sweats and one of their T-shirts and loudly announces "I love you" repeatedly until he´s arrived in the kitchen where Matteo is at the stove making pancakes.

+++ 

Chapter 6 

Gradually, the shaking subsides, but David clings to the cave´s entrance for a few more moments afterwards, just to make sure it´s really over. 

He pokes his head around to look into the tunnel that´s disappearing into the darkness. 

He gulps, hesitating. He never asked Matteo if it was okay to go into his cave. 

But what if Matteo is in there and needs help? David knows for sure he can´t just leave him.

He could be hurt, severely injured, maybe he´s bleeding… Can dragons bleed? David doesn´t really know, but Matteo seems to him just as vulnerable as any other creature, maybe even more so than most. He finds he has really come to care for him over the last few weeks. 

Maybe Matteo is the best friend he´s ever had. 

Without looking back, prince David enters the cave. 

+++ 

Frozen 4 is Charlie´s chosen movie for the morning. Abdi and Carlos allow it, but only if she dresses up for it. She rolls her eyes at them, because that was what she was planning to anyway, of course. Seriously. 

+++ 

It turns out, Matteo made pancakes for them, so they could spend the rest of the day in bed. It´s slowly becoming winter and the light outside their window is sparse, but they don´t spare it much thought. It´s their first free Saturday together in weeks. 

Matteo tastes sweet like syrup and there´s powdered sugar on both of their faces (and at least one pillow) when they collapse down on the bed and against each other for the first time after breakfast. 

At least this time it´s not whipped cream, David thinks.

+++ 

Laura calls early in the evening. David happens to have a fully naked Matteo up on the kitchen counter with his back against one of the cabinets, legs spread and one leg hooked over David´s shoulder. 

It´s been a pretty successful day so far, David would say. They could have turned off their phones, true, but they never even stopped to think of that. 

With a smirk David pulls off and places a kiss on the inside of Matteo´s thigh. 

"I promise I´ll remember where I left off, love." 

"You better," Matteo stammers breathlessly, heat sitting high on his cheeks. 

"Don´t say hi to Laura for me though. She´s canceled for today." 

+++ 

Chapter 7 

Prince David wonders if the cave leads straight through the earth, the tunnel is so long. The air is also getting cooler and cooler the further down he goes. He feels his way forward more than he sees; feet and hand finding purchase or obstacles, fingers running over stone, as he moves around smoothed down corners and sometimes slides down sloping declines. 

Until, all of a sudden, he finds himself at the mouth of an enormous cave.

After endless minutes or maybe hours of darkness, he can distinctly make out a reddish glimmer in the middle of a vast dome-like cavern. The glow emanating from the pile in the middle throws wobbling shapes on the distant walls and the floor at David´s feet. His mouth falls open when he realizes what he´s looking at. 

It´s a giant pile of gems, some dusty and blackened, others glittering in reds, greens and blues, and next to it, Matteo.

Gems forgotten, David can´t take his eyes off the sad boy that´s not a dragon anymore at all. 

He´s a real human boy, and he looks so scared and lost that David feels his heart break. He doesn´t know why he knows this is Matteo, his friend who was a dragon before, but he knows he doesn´t care about ´why´ and ´how´ right now. All he knows is he needs to help Matteo. 

+++ 

Charlie is a grumpy handful in the afternoon, and just when Abdi and Carlos want to leave for a visit with Hanna and Jonas, too.

Only when Hanna calls (after Carlos messages her) and threatens to withhold cake can they make her comply with the afternoon ice skating plans. 

Charlie makes Abdi carry her on his shoulders the whole way to the subway and although Carlos teases him for being totally whipped, he can´t help but sneak his hand into Abdi´s jacket pocket around his back and hold him close while they walk. 

+++ 

Chapter 9 

Matteo is so confused. Being back out in the open air helps, but while he feels so good in his human body, like it should be his all the time, he doesn´t know why that is. All he knows is that something is terribly wrong. 

He thinks he has been here before. Like this. Human, alone and afraid. That he was right whenever he felt his dragon body was wrong for him. 

That maybe something happened to him in the past. 

He thinks he would have cried all the way back out through the tunnel if David hadn´t been by his side. Matteo clung to him since his new friend crouched down next to him by those damned gems he hates so much and started leading him back out. 

As it was, he only sobbed two or three times, and everytime David simply held him closer and stroked his hair and said: “It´s okay, I´m here now. Come with me, we´re getting you out, come now, not much longer, shhh, I´m here.”

He wasn´t able to say anything back to David then, but he made sure to squeeze his hand where David steadied Matteo against his side. 

He was so grateful he had hands now to do that. He could touch like a real human and express how thankful he was this way and maybe he could finally show his affection because he truly liked David, and… oh.

Matteo stands in front of the cave in the bright midday sun that doesn´t fit his panicked state of helplessness at all and stares down at his bruised, dusty human hands.

“I don´t think I´ve always been a dragon,” are the first words he speaks.

+++

Turns out this morning´s pancakes weren´t quite sufficient for a whole day of lovemaking. 

When Matteo wakes up next, he realizes he has never found David sexier than right in that moment when he comes into focus: lying next to Matteo, still naked, ordering pizza from their favorite Italian restaurant.

"Fuck, yes," is all Matteo has to say. 

David smirks at him, puts the phone somewhere behind his head and rolls on top of Matteo. 

"Hi," he says before a kiss, "We have 40 minutes. How weakened are you?" He pokes Matteo´s cheeks and thumbs his mouth open to kiss him more deeply. As if on cue, Matteo´s stomach grumbles loudly between them and David throws his head back in laughter. "Oh my god, the vibrations went all the way through my stomach." 

"I´m sooo weak," Matteo complains with a pout, but also keeps David on top of him with both arms and one foot hooked behind one ankle. "You may have to feed me." 

"Oh, I´ll feed you…" David wiggles his eyebrows.

"Mmmh, fuck, yes."

+++

Chapter 11

David returns from the nearest town with all the leftover food he could carry. As the townspeople just had their big annual pizza festival, the food in this case means seven different kinds of pizza. 

He is not sure about the toppings, but hopes Matteo will find something he likes. 

He hasn´t really seen him eat much when he was a dragon, so he hopes human Matteo likes pizza. But who wouldn´t like pizza?

"What is that? Sauce Hollandaise?" Matteo sniffs as David arrives back at the cave and pulls a face. "There´s apparently also…" David dips a finger into another sauce and licks it, "Tsatsiki? I knew there was a reason I stay away from people."

Matteo looks at him from hooded eyes and huffs. "They´re afraid of me, you know. In the town. Because I´m a dragon." He looks down at his human feet. "I don´t know how much longer I can be a boy. Like I said, I think this has happened before, but I just can´t remember much. It´s like I have a big cloud of cotton in my head. All I feel is strange and sad."

David feels sorrow roll through him again. 

He wonders if he should tell Matteo what the townspeople asked him to do. He assumes they ask every stranger who comes into town the same thing.

"Has anybody ever come to… visit you from the town?" David starts nibbling one a slice that has neither Hollandaise nor Tsatsiki on it.

Matteo cocks his head and David doesn´t like that particular glint he sees in his eyes. It´s hard and cold like steel. "Only when they want to get rid of me."

He stares at David until he gets uncomfortable. "They´ve asked you to do it, haven´t they?"

David presses his lips together and deliberately holds Matteo´s hostile glare. "They have. And you know I would never."

Matteo slumps forward, pulling up his shoulders. He mumbles, so David has trouble hearing him at first: "What if I wanted you to? What if I´d rather you make me go away than anybody else?"

David is shocked. 

He is suddenly thrown back to the time his father, the king, first banished him from his lands.

"Matteo," he croaks out. He doesn´t know what else to say, so he sits down by Matteo´s side and puts his arm around him. Matteo melts into his touch and sniffles. 

After a few minutes, he wipes at his tears. His voice sounds soft but steady when he says to David without looking at him: "I think you´re the best friend I´ve ever had."

+++

Charlie is perched on Jonas´ lap holding her own small guitar with Jonas moving her fingers into position and strumming with her other hand.

Ice skating has tired her out, though, Carlos can tell. He doesn´t have the heart to tell Jonas, because he´s been so excited about teaching her to play ever since she first more banged than strummed the strings on his old guitar that he still sometimes gets out when he feels inspired.

Maybe there´s a free babysitter in their future, Carlos ponders. Music lessons included? Why not. He makes a mental note to tell Abdi later.

At least for tomorrow the situation is sorted.

Wellness and whale songs with Abdi, and Davenzi taking care of Charlie. Nice.

+++

Chapter 14

"David? DAVID! Come quick!" Matteo calls with a note of fear in his voice that makes David run faster. He drops the armful of wood he has collected for their fire and breaks through the underbrush and into the clearing.

Across the way, on the other side of the cave´s entrance, a small group of townspeople has gathered. David can´t suppress a groan. Why does it always have to be pitchforks?

He quickly steps up to Matteo, who is still the shape of a boy, and looking decidedly small and vulnerable at this very moment.

"Where is the dragon," barks a fat, middle-aged man standing in front of the little group. David recognizes him from the town´s pizza festival the other day. He thinks he was of the Tsatsiki fraction of bakers.

He puts one hand firmly in the small of Matteo´s back. From the corner of his eye he can see Matteo turn his head to look at him, but he refuses to break eye contact with the ringleader.

"I don´t know, I don´t see him. Do you?" His tone is soft and neutral, but there´s a vibration to it that could come across as threatening. He doesn´t know where he pulls it from, maybe it´s a remnant from his royal upbringing, an authority over others he used to command that he despises, but could apparently still summon.

Only his authority now is worthless.

Mr. Tsatsiki doesn´t pick up on it anyway, although several of the others behind him do, judging from the way they look at each other and beginn to fall back.

David hasn´t realized that Matteo next to him has stood up straight and taken a small step forward. When he starts to speak, David is as surprised as the townspeople.

"I am the dragon."

+++

Carlos and Abdi are getting an early start on their spa trip since Charlie has been up since 7:30. They draw out breakfast as much as they can while waiting for a reply from David and Matteo about when it´s okay to drop her off.

When David finally texts to let them know they´re awake and "ready for kids", Abdi is already getting himself and Charlie dressed by the door. Carlos scratches his head at the replies between Matteo and David that follow in the chat. "Bro, are David and Matteo thinking about having kids?"

"Huh? No idea? I haven´t asked them lately. Why?" He zips up his own coat and checks Charlie´s. 

"Dude, we beat dad," he crows, and he and Charlie high-five.

"Do you have to call our daughter ´dude´ all the time, man?" Carlos grabs his backpack and the apartment keys. "The other kids at school are going to look at her funny, or something."

"Because I call her ´dude` when she´s not even at school? That doesn´t make any sense, man. Plus, she likes it, don´t you, Cookie?" Charlie, who´s been pulling at Abdi´s sleeve to get going, putting her whole body weight behind it, nods emphatically. "Let´s gooo, dads!"

"See? She´s cool with it. Come on, hot stuff. Let´s get your clothes off and relaxation mode on." Abdi smiles one of his bigger smiles, but then his brows knit together. "Why did we even get dressed just to get there? We could have just stayed in PJs for the trip. Think about it, we would be so much more relaxed already!"

"You´re crazy, dude. Let´s go." Carlos smacks Abdi´s butt on the way out the door.

+++

Chapter 17

Matteo´s scales glimmer in the sunshine. They´re a deep rich red, a bit like chestnuts, David finds. It´s nice to see their real color shining through, at last.

The town´s witch is visiting. She has just told them an astonishing tale. Or rather, she has told David something he never thought he´d hear with a happy heart again.

They´re family.

Laura she is called, although not by the town. They don´t care about her name, they just see her as useful or scary, depending on who you asked and under what circumstances. That might be about to change now, though, David thinks. They have concocted a plan involving the gems, or at least a small portion of them.

But the tale that makes David´s heart glad and new goes as follows: As it turns out, David had a sister when he was little. Only his parents, the King and Queen did not approve of her when she got older.

She had to leave the kingdom, and came to settle in the small town near the dragon´s cave by accident. At the time, she simply had a feeling it was the right place for her.

Laura also has a tale for Matteo: The rumor about a boy who has been cursed to live as a dragon without knowing he was a boy once is part of the town´s folklore.

The mean twist of the curse? He can be a boy every now and then, but never remember it´s who he really is when he returns to his unnatural dragon form.

Laura doesn´t know much more than that, but promises to find out more soon, just as she promises to help reverse the curse. As a witch she is well-versed, and even though Matteo remains doubtful, David feels he can trust her. Maybe it´s a siblings thing, he thinks with a smile and a flutter under his ribs.

The day of the earth quake, or when Matteo caused the earth to shake under David´s feet because he disturbed the giant pile of gems in his cave, Laura woke from a nap in her cottage with a feeling of alarm that quickly turned into wonder.

She says she felt a disturbance in the air that day, wandering around her garden. Like something had cracked and something else was escaping through those cracks.

Matteo shakes his big dragon head slowly as he tries to remember what happened in the cave.

"I just knew I hated those gems." He begins haltingly. "It´s a dragon thing to collect gems, but I never could stand looking at them. Knowing that they´re there. I didn´t know why I hated them so much. I never knew why I hated being a dragon so much. I just knew I did."

David´s arm is resting lightly on one of Matteo´s giant paws and he´s leaning against it comfortably as he´s sitting between Laura and Matteo.

Matteo for his part is stretched out in front of the cave, and he hasn´t gone back in since he turned back into a dragon yesterday.

And today, for the first time, he still remembers being a boy. He is more hopeful than David has ever seen him. 

Many questions are still unanswered, and their future may still be as dull and blind as the gems deep down in the cavern underneath their feet, but...

No, David furrows his brow, that´s not right at all. The future feels much brighter today than yesterday. Only they can´t see it all quite yet. And they don´t have all the solutions at hand, even though they´re sure they´re coming. They have help and a new friend on their side, and maybe the town soon, too, if their plan works out.

Most importantly, they have each other. As he leans against Matteo´s flank, giving and receiving comfort, he knows that´s something they both already know. And it makes all the difference in the world, no matter what kingdom you´re in or how long you´re still trapped in the wrong form.

David cranes his head to look around Matteo´s head and down his body to those neatly folded wings of his. He has an idea.

"Matteo," he asks, "have you ever flown?"

+++

Matteo has barely opened the door before Charlie barrels through and into his arms. He catches her and lifts her up, hugging her tight.

"Cookie, piccola, my sweets, there you are! We haven´t seen you in forever!"

Charlie wiggles around in his arms until he puts her back down. She disappears down the hallway while Matteo bro-hugs Carlos.

"Where´s Abdi? Didn´t he come up?" Matteo looks around Carlos, but the stair case is empty. "Nope. He´s changing in the car."

"Huh? Okay, do I have to understand that or…?" 

"Nope. You really don´t. He thinks he can beat me in relaxing."

"He´s an idiot."

"Yes. Oh hey, David!"

David appears, carrying Charlie. "She´s really getting too big to be carried, oof. Hi Carlos." They fist-bump around Charlie and despite complaining, David makes no move to put her down. Instead he carries her over to the living room in a sort of dance-step-twirl that has her squealing and laughing.

"She´s going to throw up on him if he keeps that up. Oh well, not my problem. Here, her bags; all her stuff´s in there, you know the drill. I´m off, brudi."

Matteo nods and they hug goodbye. He turns around to join his husband and favorite niece on the sofa.

When he opens her little backpack the book about the dragon and the prince falls out.

Why not, Matteo thinks. Story time is about to commence.


End file.
